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"dredges/drudges/drags/rags of society" for "dregs of society"

“Dregs” refers to the sludgy stuff left over in the bottom of the cup. “Dredging” brings up sludgy stuff from the bottom of the bay or channel, though most of us are probably likely to use “dredgings” to refer to the product of that activity, rather than “dredges.” Perhaps the writers are thinking of the bottom rungs of society as the “dredges” doing the “dredging.” “Dredge” and “dregs” appear to be unrelated. “Dredge” seems to be derived from the same root as “to drag,” and “dregs” appears to be a borrowing from Norse. Calvert Watkins gives two different IE stems for the two words (“dhrag-” “to draw, drag”, and “dher-” “to make muddy,” respectively).

“Dredges” turns out to be the tip – or maybe the bottom – of the sludgeberg. “Dregs of society” has spawned a bunch of reshapings, and here’s a quick inventory of the ones I thought of:

Re: "dredges/drudges/drags/rags of society" for "dregs of society"

Primo. You’ve been turning up some good ones lately, Pat.

“Dredge” for “dregs” is almost a flounder eggcorn. It occurs in several other contexts besides “dredge of society.” “Dredge of humanity,” for example. You can see some other contexts by googling “dredge of” and “dredge of the.”

Re: "dredges/drudges/drags/rags of society" for "dregs of society"

When I encounter an Eggcorn or other interesting usage that I haven’t mentioned hereon yet, I like to post it even if it’s been addressed here before, in order to point it out to members who haven’t seen it before and to add my example to the pile. So now I’m resurrecting this thread from some time back because I just encountered this one on the Internet:

“These are the final dredges of an old and dying era, thank God.”

I think “dredges” for “dregs” is a real eggcorn because the pronunciation and meaning similarities are both there. I don’t know why it hasn’t made it onto the official eggcorn list yet (along with lots of other seemingly perfectly good eggcorns I’ve seen mentioned here). Just too large a backlog of work for our eggcorn experts, maybe?

Re: "dredges/drudges/drags/rags of society" for "dregs of society"

I follow word usage in both UK and US English quite extensively. “Dreg” for “Drek” is what we call an “eggcorn”.... In this case, “drek” heard as “dreg”. It’s a somewhat logical error since “the dregs” are the most undesirable part.

The ready substitution of “dreg” for “drek” can be seen by searching “drek” idioms, such as “a total drek.”